Course contents and suggested bibliography

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4. Typology of classical languages (Ancient Greek and Latin)
 PAOLO RAMAT (U Pavia) and PIERLUIGI CUZZOLIN (U Bergamo)

PART I: General framework

Lesson 1: Outlines of the program:

  • a) how relevant data are chosen for the typology of a language L (e.g. Seiler’s etikettierendes Prinzip @ synthetic vs. beschreibendes Prinzip @ analytic);

  • b) parameters employed in this kind of typology: e.g. modifier + modified vs. modified + modifier; head-marking vs. dependent-marking type; morphological type a language belongs to, etc.

    •

    Lesson 2: Ancient Greek and Latin as representatives of the inflectional Indo-European type: between Schwegler’s principles of analyticity (Ancient Greek ly-th-e:s-oi-n-to) and syntheticity (ly-o:):

    a) inflectional categories

    b) non inflectional categories: Num., Adp., Adv.

    c) traces of the isolating principle: Latin de ab ante casa(m); sub vos placo;

    d) traces of the agglutinative principle: Latin clara mente

    Lesson 3: Outlines of the history of Ancient Greek and Latin: from Indo-European to Classical Greek and

    Classical Latin.

    Lesson 4: Outlines of the history of Ancient Greek and Latin: from Classical Greek to Modern Greek through Byzantine and Medieval Greek; from Classical Latin to Romance. Diagrammatic and antidiagrammatic tendencies in the development of the two languages. The rise of peculiar syntactic patterns: the semiAUXs: Spanish acabar de, Italian stare per +INF, etc.

     

    PART II: Some salient typological features

     

    Lesson 5: Phonological features of Ancient Greek and Latin:

    a) the treatment of the plosives;

    b) the accent

    c) the syllable structure

    Lesson 6: Morphological features of Ancient Greek and Latin:

    a) analyticity and syntheticity in nominal and verbal endings

    b) grades and functions of apophony

    c) tense and aspect: the functions of prefixes, suffixes and infixes

    Lesson 7: Word structure and word formation rules: inflection vs. derivation; form and function of compounds, between morphology and syntax

    Lesson 8: The Noun Phrase and its syntactic functions

    Lesson 9: Definiteness / Indefiniteness marking on the Noun Phrase

    Lesson 10: The Verbal Phrase

    Lesson 11: Types of clauses

    a) The main sentence, syntactic alignment and semantic roles

    b) Voice and diathesis

    Lesson 12: The subordinate clauses:

    a) the relative clause

    b) the conditional clause

    Lesson 13: Mood and modality:

    a) the optative/desiderative

    b) evidentiality

    Lessons 14 and 15: A typological survey of Ancient Greek and Latin: conclusive remarks.

     

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